Unexpected
by Xennariel
Summary: Roy goes to Riza's apartment for dinner expecting a cozy night together only to find she's gone missing and the only one who knows where she could be is Hayate.


This is another prompt drabble that I wrote a while ago for mylieutenant on Tumblr for the prompt 'A Cozy Night In.' I didn't post in anywhere other than Tumblr though so I decided to finally post it here. Enjoy.

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What was supposed to be a cozy night in turned out to be evening full of panic and fear.

Roy held a bouquet of flowers close to his chest in an attempt to shield them from the wind that blew an icy chill across Central as he walked from the flower shop to his lieutenant's apartment. The crisp autumn air was a refreshing change from the blistering hot summer they had that year and he knew Riza would agree, but he wished the breeze would let up a little so the flowers he bought her wouldn't blow apart.

Thankfully the distance from the flower shop to her apartment wasn't too far and he arrived with his bouquet intact. He fixed the flowers up a bit as he bound up the steps to Riza's apartment and grinned widely as he neared her door. Riza was cooking dinner for him and then he planned to spend the rest of the evening sipping wine and cuddling as long as Riza would allow him. It was going to be a wonderful night, he was sure of it.

Until he went to knock on her door and found it was slightly ajar. His grin quickly turned to a concerned frown as he pushed his way into her apartment, calling her rank. It was completely dark and he stumbled over something on his way to switch on a lamp.

When he finally managed to turn on a light, his worry became panic at the sight of Riza's apartment in near shambles. Papers and books were strewn across the floor and several pieces of furniture were overturned. It appeared as if there had been a struggle.

He called out Riza's rank again, heart pounding in his chest, dread settling in the pit of his stomach, hoping she would respond, but the only response he received was a muffled bark from Black Hayate from the direction of the bathroom. Roy hurried to open the door and Hayate burst out in a flash of black and white, nearly knocking Mustang over. The dog sped to the foyer and barked insistently at Roy, wanting to be let out.

"Do you know where she is, boy?"

Mustang felt a little odd asking a dog a question, but this was an emergency and Hayate seemed to understand and barked even more vigorously. Roy opened the door and Hayate ran out, sniffing then turning at the top of the stairs to bark again. Roy got the message and followed, relying on Hayate to hopefully be following Riza's scent.

He raced after the dog, just barely keeping up with him as they darted past parked cars, around corners, and straight through groups of people on their quest through the city to find Hawkeye. There wasn't much light left as the sun dipped below the horizon and soon the street lamps were the only things lighting their path, their gentle glow barely enough to help Roy keep his eye on Hayate bounding down the road ahead of him. That was the reason Roy didn't see Hayate suddenly stop and he practically tripped over the shiba inu standing in the middle of the sidewalk, hackles raised and teeth bared.

Roy looked to the direction Hayate's nose was pointing and his eyes fell on a nondescript truck parked along the curb a few yards ahead. There were three men standing outside the truck, seeming like they were getting ready to leave. Judging from their posture, they were nervous about something, fidgeting and looking around and not doing a very good job of hiding their guilt. Roy stepped closer, quietly to not alarm them of his presence quite yet, and took in their appearances. All three of them had black eyes, busted lips, and looked generally beat up. It probably wouldn't be hard for Roy and Hayate to take them down. Riza must have put up an excellent fight and Roy's chest swelled with pride and affection. That was his girl, tough as nails, and beautiful to boot.

"Get them, boy," Roy whispered to Hayate and the dog immediately leapt at one of the men.

The man let out a surprised yelp as Hayate knocked him to the ground and stood on his chest growling. The other two men began shouting at Hayate, both reaching for whatever weapons they had on them, and while they were distracted, Roy took the opportunity to quickly put on his gloves and snap at the wheels on the truck, melting the axles and hubcaps so the kidnappers wouldn't be able to get away should they manage to get into the driver's seat. Then, he turned and snapped at the men who were about to attack Hayate, flames shooting out and hitting each of their hands, forcing them to drop their weapons in order to cradle their now singed fingers.

Roy stepped from the shadows into the dim light of the street lamp, the glow illuminating his none too pleased expression.

"Good evening, gentlemen," he said, voice low and menacing, laced with thinly veiled anger. "I believe you have something of mine. Something very dear to me that I would very much like returned."

All three men grimaced and tried to flee down the street, but Roy snapped and cut them off with an explosion in front of them, stopping them in their tracks. They turned slowly to face Roy, the leader of the little group putting up his hands in defense.

"L…look, we don't want any trouble. We don't know what you're talking about. We don't have anything you'd want."

"No?" Roy glanced at Hayate who was whining and scratching at the back of the truck. "My dog's behavior would suggest otherwise. There's someone in the back of the truck, correct?"

Roy raised his hand in the direction of the kidnappers as a silent threat and all three men gulped, looking at each other before nodding vigorously.

"Y..Yeah, all right, you got us. We…We didn't know she was a friend of yours…"

"Subordinate and good friend, yes."

The men gasped and one would almost be able to see the wheels turning in their heads. If the man before them was the Flame Alchemist, and if the woman they attempted to kidnap was his subordinate, that meant that she must have been Lieutenant Hawkeye, the one who was always by his side. There were no other women on his team and most members of the military, along with many wanted criminals in East, knew Mustang and they knew very who the members of his team were. It was a wonder these kidnappers managed to avoid being caught by them this long.

The men tried to make a break for it again, but Hayate jumped on the leader, causing the man to fall against the front of the truck and hit his head, falling unconscious onto the street. The other two were taken down by Mustang, his flames forcing the men to leap back toward him where he punched both of them with enough force that knock them out as well.

Roy rushed to open the back of the truck as soon as the men were out cold and he found Hawkeye, unconscious on the floor with her hands and feet bound.

"Lieutenant!" Mustang jumped up into the van and knelt by her side, gripping her shoulders and shaking her gently. She had a large cut with bruising around it that stretched from the right side of her forehead to her temple and it made Roy furious. They must have hit her with something heavy and blunt in order to knock her out and he suddenly wished he had beat them up a little more just for hurting her. "Lieutenant, can you hear me?"

She didn't wake up until they were in an ambulance and on the way to the hospital. She asked Roy what was going on, and though she argued against it, he insisted she rest, that he would explain once they were sure she was fine.

Once they arrived at the hospital, the doctors looked her over, bandaged her head, and informed Roy that she had a mild concussion, that it wasn't too much to worry about and she could go home, but she should not do anything too strenuous and just relax for the rest of the week. They gave Roy some painkillers for her and told him to bring her back right away should she feel strange or faint.

"That could have been much worse," Roy said as he walked Riza up the steps to her apartment, Hayate loyally at their heels, cheerfully trotting behind them, happy to have his master back. "Turns out those were the kidnappers we've been tracking the past couple of weeks. Looks like they picked the wrong woman to attack this time. No one attacks _you_ and gets away unscathed. They looked like they'd been through hell even before I got to them."

Riza smiled faintly.

"It was just self defense. And, sir?" Riza gestured to Roy's hand on her shoulder. "I don't need help getting up these stairs. I feel fine. I just have a headache."

"Better safe than sorry, Lieutenant. I don't want you falling and getting another concussion."

"I'm not worried. You'd catch me before that happened."

Roy chuckled and nodded.

"That's true."

He released her shoulder, but kept his hand hovering behind her, just in case. They made it up the steps with no problems and arrived at her door.

"It's fairly late now, so I suppose we'll have to switch our plans to another night."

"Nonsense, Lieutenant. I need to watch out for you anyway. I'll stay for a bit and even help cook."

"That's not necessary, sir, I can look out for myself." Riza lowered her voice and glanced around before adding. "If someone sees you leaving my apartment this late…"

"Then I'll just stay until tomorrow afternoon. Now come on, how about that cozy night in you promised me?"

Riza sighed and glared a him incredulously. He grinned back and after a brief staring match, she relented and let him in.


End file.
